27 Pursuit of Time Part Two
by redcloudedleopard
Summary: Continuation of the Part One story: Ronan & Diablo switch their target & a high octane chase ensues on the crowded streets of NYC. Please review!
1. Hounded

"Remind me again why I'm here mindin' the computers, Suzy. _Without Stretch's permission._" Ben's raspy, grumpy voice sounded in Sue & Ozai's earpieces. Looking at Reed's PDA that displayed the faces of two renowned supervillains, Leopard X studied the streets they walked, watching for any signs of trouble.

"What? Who says we _need_ his permission all the time?" Sue smirked. "It was urgent, anyway. Those Kronotrackers were beeping like crazy." Therefore, although Reed was absent from his lab at that funny hour, she'd rounded up the other two & entered the alternate timeline displayed on the Kronotracker screens before hopping into the time machine.

"We got a lock on Ronan & Diablo. Let's move!" Ozai urged them.

Ben muttered, "Stretch scares me with his brainpower…the facial recognition thingamajig, his timeline tracker gizmo….Before ya know it he's gonna invent something that literally changes history."

Just as his two teammates hurried up an alley they recognized (despite their travelling to New York which was twenty years younger), Sue made a point, "I wonder who's past their trying to interrupt this time."

"Ronan!" Leopard X called out. From his knuckle armour out came his sharpened claws in preparation.

"Surprised to see me so soon?" the Accuser let his voice reverberate about the area. It wore in & out of nooks, crannies, & crevices of the buildings packed together. His back remained turned to them, though, as he curled his fingers tighter around his staff.

Sue was no more than already bored, "Not just surprised. Thrilled…" She nailed the sarcasm well, the way she loved doing it to hopefully set off a bad guy's short fuse. Yet Ronan's wild hunger for the "destruction of the Fantastic Four & their friends" was simply mind-boggling. She found it a little puke-inducing that the hunger seemed to be pushing him to harm innocent children.

"Help me, please! They won't leave me alone," a meek & mousy but clear child's voice pulled at everyone's attention. Cornered by Ronan & Diablo & stuck against a wall like paste was a small boy of approximately nine years. Incredibly innocent amber eyes peeked out from beneath his slightly shaggy fringe, & he was clad in a rather semi-formal white jacket with a black t-shirt underneath & beige pants.

"Reed?" Sue focused her gaze on the child. Gosh, was he so cute. Just as cute as she thought he was now, & when she'd first met him.

"You would be a fool to lay a hand on him," sneered Diablo, complete with freaky glowing eyes.

"Young little Mister Fantastic belongs to ME. Leave, or be dealt with," Ronan gave ample warning. His laser-beam eyes flashed to a shaky little Reed.

Leopard X fastened his helmet then crossed both arms, "I can do 'dealt with'…what say you, Susan?" She needn't answer; all she did was signal to him with a smiling look. The very first move was hers - with fluid, flexible hands she shoved the baddies to the sides with pulse attacks.

"Every effort you put in will be wasted. Face it, you can't mess with us. Just give up already," she confidently told them. But their faces, especially Ronan's, were peppered with a stubborn side of evil.

"On the contrary," the Kree flaunted his arrogance, "I am not only persistent in destroying you & your team. I believe in honour! Dignity! & above all, in fair punishment."

"Can we just skip to the fight?" asked Ozai, now crouched on four paws.

A big cackle left Ronan's lips, "Then it should be enjoyable start. You see, I've brought you a little playmate or two…" At a snap of his fingers there were growling noises thickening the air with their nearby rumbles. A pair of deadly borg hounds emerged from a smaller darkened alleyway, taking their stations beside their master.

The beasts were really roused by Leopard X's snarl & one of them suddenly pounced, landing onto Ozai. The second hound sprung for Sue but she stopped it in mid-air with an easy force field.

Ben was booming through the comm. devices, "Awwwww, shouldn't Dr. O be the one stayin' behind? I haven't clobbered somethin' in ages!" Ozai was accustomed to how he always spoke in volumes about missing a good tussle. He teased, "Sorry, Ben. I beat you to it. Besides, Sue pulled me into the Fantasticar first."

They heard a sigh & mumbling from the receiving end of the line, "Now I'm stuck with makin' up excuses in case Stretch pops in…"

Ozai rolled & struggled with the steel-hard, snapping jaws of the animal threatening to gnaw him dead, whilst the Invisible Woman had thrashed the other by hurling it at Diablo. However, Ronan was swift to knock her off both feet after he aimed his weapon at her back. Meanwhile, Leopard X had successfully thrown off the borg hound with a concentrated laser beam. He continued to snarl & snap, which intimidated the beast.

"Why am I _always_ the first to be shamed…," whined Diablo.

"Get up. We can bring this battle to another level..," the Kree motioned to him. Ronan noticed that Reed had escaped; a flicker of a thought - then he called for the pair of hounds to follow. He could still hear the child's irregular breathing as he sprinted down the street; that meant he wasn't too far ahead to catch up with…The four of them were off in a split second to hunt down the kid.

"They're heading for Chinatown!" Ozai alerted Sue. He helped her up immediately, & they sped after the group of baddies into a sea of colourful patterns, lights & events.


	2. Chinatown Showdown

Sorry for the long wait: understanding Reed's personal life is very difficult. By far he's the hardest character to interpret.

* * *

Leopard X sighted the familiar spark of Ronan's staff on a rooftop surrounded by pastel-coloured lanterns.

Reed had found his way up there, up a ladder on the building wall, following a blind run into the crowds & buzz of Chinatown. But not soon after, at least two of his pursuers caught up at breakneck speed. He stuttered, frightened furrows forming on his face, "I don't recall doing anything to you! I just wanted to find my father & then -"

"Enough. We will deal with you quickly," Ronan bluntly responded. "It will all be over _soon_." The seven foot tall Kree brandished his weapon the way one would do with an axe. He neared the boy & was already picturing himself smiting his captive. "Oh, NO you don't!" The sound of a pulsing force field whipped past Reed's ears.

The fight was astoundingly fast-paced. He failed to measure the length of time before Leopard X ran to him. "We're jumping off. Climb on my back, kid. Quickly!" Apparently he was in capable hands, only he shuddered in his lack of confidence, "But I'm - I'm afraid of heights!"

Sue flashed him a warm grin, "Reed, honey, fear of heights is irrational. It's much more accurate to say you have a fear of falling." Probably the most hilarious thing she'd uttered in ages, for he'd been the one to originally say it. She proceeded to shield the two of them from Diablo's earth blast plus buy them time.

"Whoaaaaaaa!" the kid screamed out. Ozai leapt for the thick cable linking the building's edge to that of another situated opposite.

Sue swiftly went invisible - to steal an opportunity of fixing a lantern onto the alchemist's head. In addition she put a little bubble to cover his face & make him lose air gradually. Diablo was knocked out in under a minute. While he was, she wrapped a thick layer of lantern wire around him as quick as she could.

Reed was all gasps as he looked down from on cable. He was much less afraid, even having enough breath to say, "That's incredible.."

Ozai managed a good deal of strength to pull himself up. He rested & clung to the cable as Ronan readied his staff, & said, "You're a tired villain, Ronan. You try too much," he precisely lasered the concrete beneath the Accuser's feet at the roof's edge. The Kree didn't anticipate falling & hanging by the cable using a single arm. "Too hard," Ozai swung acrobatically around the wire while still holding on, "Too bad." Finally he delivered an immense, confident kick to his torso.

Ronan fell in wincing pain onto a performance stage below where the dragon dancers were just ending their item. The performers dressed in flowy red & gold found that startling, & inched away from him nervously.

"NO! I will not bow down to some arrogant, spiteful feline!" spat the blue-skinned alien. People took out cameras to snap photos wildly, apart from the rest who simply gawked. Under his malleable-looking face must've been a raging battle between cowardice & its opposite.

"Reed, run!" Ozai muttered upon landing. He let the child slide off his back straight after.

The boy just stared, "B-but -"

"Just go!" said Leopard X. "Daddy, look at the giant kitty!" came a girl's peals of delight from the throng. Sue hovered over to where they were,& barked,_ "Everyone, leave now! It's too dangerous!" _The onlookers listened & made their way to the corners of the wide courtyard.

However, something large sprang upon her & pinned her to the ground with a sharp-edged hoove. Reed let out a little shriek just watching it happen, but it motivated him to dash to safety. "Have you forgotten about the hounds so soon?" loud cackles rang in the air. Ozai was a little slow to prevent the second hound from pouncing onto him. The Accuser slowly approached the beast handling Sue & snapped his fingers again as a command for it to let go of her.

Ozai partially complained, "Ugh, I wish my daughter was here. She would take on these monsters faster than I ever could." The borg hound above him growled as though it had a bottomless hunger.

"I'll handle this," Sue said softly. Reed was still in danger for sure. Under that mild tone of hers was that same angry love, burning again. It last burned during the previous battle with Ronan, when he almost harmed her ever so vulnerable little brother.

"No. I've got a plan that might work," Ozai made a one-sided smile. He knew he'd be strong enough to do this; at a ripe moment he rolled over with all his might, & seized the hound's front legs with his hands armoured as leopard paws. Somehow he managed to prop himself up & mount the animal very tightly. "Atta boy…that's it…" he forced his master lock around its beefy neck. Though its spikes threatened to pierce his helmet, he hung on to try steering it in a good direction. Soon the beast bucked hard, but Ozai had been through a similar predicament in the Contest of Champions.

"SUSAN! WATCH OUT!" he yelled, ramming the borg hound into the other one to set it completely off balance. It hurtled clumsily onto the rocky pavement, so badly damaged that it only twitched instead of picking itself back up. Ronan backed off to dodge the charging animal just in time, & turned to see that most of the people were actually still watching from a distance. They were coming closer, in fact. Flabbergasted how all eyes were locked on him, he did nothing more than clench his teeth.

Ozai had accidentally pulled out a shard of the hound's mane by holding on to it: underneath it, on the beast's body, was a network of wires branching out of a central point. With shortage of time to think he randomly pulled out a green wire, hoping to shut the hound down if it was in any way robotic.

The animal halted abruptly, hooves screeching slightly against the stone path. Its breathing slowed eventually & it was no longer flighty & utterly distracted. "Good boy," Ozai attempted to stroke it under his chin. That seemed to work well, for strange rumbles - much like the purrs of a big cat - unexpectedly began to vibrate in its throat. If Sue asked, maybe he'd explain how he once calmed an ill-tempered tiger by rubbing the muscle at the side of its neck!

Ronan radiated his frustration in deep breaths, jaws still tight & clenched. He fired at the borg hound in an attempt to deter it…only it turned around & threw its master what could be called a questioning glare. "Go get him!" ordered Ozai. Straight away, the hound snarled wildly & obeyed.

"Sorry I lost focus, Ozai. I saw him…," uttered Sue.

"Who?" he helped her up.

She looked in the direction of a dimmed pathway to the far right that was untouched by sunlight. "His name is Nathaniel. Reed's father." Reed had very briefly shown her pictures of him before, she recollected.

They hurried after the figure walking down the same pathway, whose back was to them. "Reed! REED!" he could be heard shouting. Just then he stopped short, puzzling Sue & Ozai. They thought they'd better give him space. After all, he didn't come across as being in the right mood for a chat.

He did something he'd only do for a rare moment; he fished in his pocket for a precious treasure. "He's probably _dreaming_ up the equations somewhere," he spoke to the photograph in his hand. The road was quite sloped & through his leopard lenses, Ozai could see that the photo displayed the smooth fair countenance of a pretty woman. "Somebody get that lad to focus…," he overheard Nathaniel's voice trailing off on a sad note & sounding so far away. It was like he was shut in a distant capsule.

"We have to find Reed & bring him back here before Nathaniel goes off," said Ozai. "We will split up. You find the boy while I try get his father to stick around."

"Got it."

Minutes went by & Sue was short on luck. "Reed!" Later she peeked onto a shady narrow alleyway, "Reed? It's me, Susan."

It was the little voice she yearned & hoped to hear, "Is the coast clear? Are…the frightening blue man…& the evil magician gone?"

"We took care of it. Come on, your father's looking for you."

"I can't leave yet." His eyes welled up the next moment. Sympathy gushed out of Sue's heart so suddenly that she physically sensed it gorging the rivers in her chest.

"No, you have to understand. I promise you he's very very worried about you."

"LISTEN, I CAN'T!" he scared her with the panic he'd bottled up all this time. After a long pause he continued, "He asked me to run some calculations for the time machine he's been trying to build. I've been trying the whole day. I can't see him without telling him I've done it." Sue's insides almost caved in. So this was why Reed appeared emotionally barren - when it came to relationships. Their relationship.

She had disappointedly guessed that the distance he kept from her was caused by his overflowing passion for science. But it was clearly the pressure inflicted on him by his father that crept into him in & settled like silt.

The boy reached out, as if asking for a cuddle, "I'm afraid…Susan." At those words, her heart wanted to melt & sink down.


	3. Time Bends

Oh my gosh I hope I haven't screwed this up. Apologies that it took so long to post this chapter - I haven't had Internet access for _days_.

* * *

They paced about a wide open space impatiently; the colour had been driven from the face of Reed's father. "Where is he? I thought you knew where we were heading," he firmly said. Building after building, street after street, & still no sign of Reed or Sue.

"No, something's not right..," replied Ozai who found the scientist's no-nonsense attitude uncomfortable. He whispered to himself next, "Anytime _now_, Susan…" The sky turned overcast at a precise, fitting moment for two figures to emerge from behind a blind corner. Ronan had brought down the borg hound, wrapping the fingers of his right hand around a dagger-shaped shard he'd taken from its mane, with his staff in the other hand. Whereas Diablo had freed himself upon regaining consciousness & caught up with the search for the child.

"That has been what I'm trying to tell you.." Leopard X muttered to Nathaniel, who couldn't rest perfectly assured that his own safety (apart from his son's) was guaranteed. "You three are here to steal my technology, aren't you? Let me tell you I can suck you into a time vortex using _this_ gadget," he accused, face reddening with anxiety. Then he produced a sleek-looking rounded gizmo with four claspers on its sides.

Ozai waved his hand while shaking his head, "No, Dr. Richards, let me explain -" Diablo almost scorched them using a fire stream but Leopard X blocked it off with his outer block. A heartbeat later the gadget flew out of the Nathaniel's grip before it was encased in a force field. "Do I always have to fill in a moment of suspense?" Sue appeared with Reed by her side.

"Who are you guys?" Nathaniel demanded. Except his tense expression was soothed the moment he turned to his son, "Reed!" He ran to the kid, placing angered but protective hands on his shoulders, "Young man, what have you been doing?" Sue put a bubble around them both, Ozai & herself at the same time.

"I was on my way home from school, Dad. Then they cornered me in an alleyway, & then.."

"Why didn't you run? Reed, I wanted you home within the hour. Don't tell me you were in your daydreams again, churning out magic numbers in the clouds of your head."

"Dad, PLEASE! You don't understand." Now Reed was a little too frightened to lift up his eyes.

They were interrupted by Sue, "Can we save the discussion for later please?" Sooner or later she had to open the force field up to get back at their opponents.

"We will not waste the effort coming all the way to this point in time to destroy the leader of Los Quadros Fantasticos!" Diablo wielded his glowing Air potion. Sue was the only one able to withstand the resulting gush of wind, "Ronan, Diablo, please. Don't harm them!"

"As if _you_ have authority over me, Invisible Woman! If you don't hold your tongue, Diablo & I shall gladly silence you," snapped the Accuser.

"Hey, anyone home? I've been tryin' to getcha for ages!" came Ben's booming all of a sudden, through Ozai & Sue's earpieces.

"We're in another timeline, Ben. It could explain the bad reception," said Sue, "We need fresh ideas on how to clobber two maniacal villains, please!"

"That's why I told ya how much you need me in a fight," the Thing laughed.

"If he's in an alternate timeline, there must be a device latched onto him which anchors him to this timeline," Reed's father supplied answers instead.

"Oh! Like…a temporal stasis device?" Sue got excited.

"Correct. If you damage it they would disintegrate in a smear of time & space, provided they don't get to yours first!" he barked. Sue was admitted to the sight of him leaning over to protect Reed - he sheltered his son under his coat as they slowly headed to a safer corner. Diablo sent some tree roots with the Earth Potion's power to curl tightly around Nathaniel's wrist. However, he revealed the metal plates guarding his lower arm that sliced through them skillfully.

With sheer speed Ozai performed a roll attack on Ronan, looking for a possible place were he would conceal a temporal stasis device lookalike. But out of the blue a familiar alien face appeared in front of the Kree: the disappointed face of Supreme Intelligence.

"_Ronan…we finally have you in our grasp. Surrender _now_ or prepare to suffer worse."_

Ronan gawked with wild eyes at his superior, "But I…I made sure you wouldn't find me! How could you -?"

"_Did you think you could escape our detection so easily?" _The alien's lime green eyes let off an intensified glow. _"You are hereby summoned to the High court of the Empire. Severe punishment awaits you & Esteban de Ablo for unauthorized possession of highly prized technology."_

"Listen! I can explain, Supreme one!"

Ozai suddenly remembered that at the edge of Ronan's right sleeve was his means of communicating remotely with anyone from the Kree Empire. Could the temporal stasis device be hidden there? He had previously overheard him speaking to Supreme Intelligence with that device in the middle of the Contest of Champions. While he had an opportunity, he fired a powerful beam at the right location. It hit the back of Ronan's hand, damaging & cracking the crystalline material of the comm. device.

Diablo was close to launching a water wave in Sue's direction; she wanted to stress on offense in place of defense this time round. She packed together her strength at the core of her body before letting it loose in form of an incredible seismic pulse. Besides, she had it with the alchemist & his repetitive speech. A small ring he wore on a finger of one hand was shattered to bits: that ring was what kept him in the timestream. He began to panic with his most vital piece of equipment destroyed.

"_You have chosen with poor judgment, Ronan. I am afraid you must face the wrath of the whole Empire with what is left of your pride & humiliation."_

"NOOOO!" shouted Ronan in deep fear. Both he & Diablo were already enveloped in pearlescent sparks; although the devices holding them to the timeline were now malfunctioning, the Kree could still convey them to the Empire itself to carry out their prison sentence.

The footsteps of the father & son reverberated throughout the mansion's main hallway, leaving behind distant echoes. The hues of sunset outside, seen through the glass windows were in a beautiful contrast with the shades & tones of the house's interior.

"I'm so sorry for my temper flares, my boy," Nathaniel's head was a little drooped. He glanced for a long while at one of the mansion walls dressed up with many a portrait. "It is the fact that your mother isn't here anymore." He'd almost lost Reed that day, & that was how the surge of strong love he felt toward the child manifested itself more fully. It was thus easier for him to tell the truth behind his unstable emotions & rather unnecessary stress.

"I miss her so much too," Reed responded, with teary orbs of his eyes. In the manner of a child's pure innocence he added, "But at least I have you."

Sue & Ozai made their way back into the present safely, confiding in the Kree Empire who at last nabbed their most embarrassing Public Accuser. They both, along with Ben, joined up with the others for a regular night outing. But they'd forgotten a part of the time travel procedure: Ben hadn't checked that the neuralizers in each of Sue & Ozai's suits were activated before they left the scene with Nathaniel & young Reed…

Reed experienced a powerful, calming emotion that night. A vague memory of the loving side of his dad floated above every other thought. He found it hard to believe it was real at all…frankly he did not recall such an incidence in his past. Yet the image of Nathaniel Richards's smile stuck to his mind, even making him enjoy wondering how it appeared without warning.

He'd last spoken to his father three years before the space station accident. Nathaniel had taken his time machine on a journey to a new location, but had never returned since. From then on Reed carried on with his work, even though it was without the wonderful motivation of a passionate parent.

Something spontaneously prompted him to say as he lay down on his bed, "I hope you'll come back someday, Dad. I haven't lost hope." He shut his eyes savouring the essence of everything he'd learnt under the extraordinary mentor Nathaniel was.

* * *

_What exactly happened was because the neuralizer wasn't used on Nathaniel & young Reed properly, a small detail of Reed's childhood had been altered - there was the event of his father showing affection in protecting him. Since that occurred in the 'past' timeline, it affected the 'present' timeline & therefore formed a memory in adult Reed's head. It never originally happened, but intervention by Ronan, Diablo, Ozai & Sue caused the circumstances to be thrown off course._

_Note: the intervention didn't affect the event of Nathaniel disappearing mysteriously into the timestream three years prior to the creation of the Fantastic Foue. It still happened as it initially did._


End file.
